KAIPTC and Wilton Park to hold joint seminar on Climate Change and Conflict,  focusing on the Sahel and West Africa

KAIPTC and Wilton Park to hold joint seminar on Climate Change and Conflict, focusing on the Sahel and West Africa.

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) and Wilton Park have agreed to jointly organize a seminar on Climate Change and Conflict, focusing on the Sahel and West Africa. This agreement was reached when leadership of the two institutions met on the sidelines of the ‘Human rights, peace and security; strengthening the links’, held from 15 – 17 January in the United Kingdom. According to data from Climate Watch and the United Nations, temperatures in West Africa’s Sahel region are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average, even though its greenhouse gas emissions are less.

The proposed joint seminar is expected to discuss ways of lessening the activities of extremist groups and their impact on the scarcities generated by climate change, issues of displacement and humanitarian crises, how development aid adjust to the changes in climate change, among others. Already, linkages are being drawn between climate change and its ability to be a threat multiplier in areas with existing conditions and drivers for conflict.

Among other deliberations, the parties agreed to continue on the trajectory of existing shared intellectual resources and providing support to each institution’s activities on request. Also, it was agreed that Wilton Park will forward a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing the contours of the relationship in dealing with Third Parties as part of a framework for deepening partnerships.

Details of the event will be shared in due course.


For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on +233302-718200 ext 1104/1203 or +233 550 303030. You can find the KAIPTC on Facebook and twitter as: @Kaiptcgh. You can further find out more about the KAIPTC on our website: www.kaiptc.org.

About the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre:

The Ghana Ministry of Defence (MoD) established the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in 1998 and commissioned it in 2004. The purpose was to build upon and share Ghana’s five decades of internationally acclaimed experience and competence in peace operations with other states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and the rest of Africa. This was in recognition of the need for training military, police and civilian men and women to meet the changing demands of multidimensional peace operations. The Centre is one of the three (3) Peacekeeping Training Centres of Excellence mandated by the ECOWAS to offer training in peacekeeping and peace support operations (PSO) in Africa.

The Centre delivers training courses in three thematic areas; Peace Support Operations, Conflict Management and Peace and Security Studies and also runs Masters and PhD programmes in same. The KAIPTC has a world-class research department that undertakes research in the thematic areas in Peace and Security. Located in Accra, Ghana, the KAIPTC is an internationally recognized institution and has to date trained and tutored over 21, 496 participants and students since its inception.

KAIPTC is a gender-sensitive organization and committed to gender equality. Following the launch of its gender policy in 2014, the Centre has mainstreamed gender into its policies and programmes, and integrates same in its focal areas, namely training, research and postgraduate education. The Centre has developed a Sexual Harassment policy and fully oriented employees on same. It has also provided a Nursing and Childcare Centre and instituted a paternity leave policy, all with the aim to create a conducive work environment at KAIPTC.